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An open letter to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, City of Hollister Councilmembers and Mayor Ignacio Velazquez:

I am writing this letter to you in response to your decision to not put the increase in sales tax on the November ballot. The reason given in the paper was that the climate was not receptive and the recent defeat of prop P for the highways and roads. 

Let me address the Measure P loss first: I believe the marketing for this measure was wrong. Iit presented that half the money would go to improve Highways 25 and 156 that run through the county.  Little mention of the improvements to the down town city and county streets and roads that serve the local people of this community.  People are tired of bailing out others and not getting any return for their taxes.

Secondly and more importantly, there are REAL NEEDS in this county that NEED to be addressed that cost REAL money. It is your collective job to LEAD this county, to see what the county NEEDS and then LEAD the way to get those NEEDS met. You say you have no money. Yet there are real needs that cost real money. It is your job to find ways to fund the projects to get these NEEDS met. Leverage assets, get a loan, pass a bond, be creative, but do something. If you don’t succeed the first time and then stop trying, you are guaranteed to FAIL.  Failure means that you didn’t do it right, go back and figure it out and learn from your mistakes … that’s called experience.

The people of San Benito County have suffered enough by inaction and ignorance by this and previous boards. 

The people of this county will support projects with money that will improve their quality of life. They will support a library, they will support a regional park, they will support road improvements, they will support an aquatic center. These are projects that will benefit them directly, not the commuters or those who pass through our county on their way to somewhere else, that the voters of this county feel should be the responsibility of the state highways department that our gasoline taxes were supposed to fund.

Get your heads out of the sand and stop worrying about failure. True leaders are not afraid of failure, they are willing to make mistakes in an effort to make changes. Leaders LEAD, they don’t find ways to retreat; they find ways to SUCCEED. Do the job you were elected to do and get things done that you promised to do. Be creative, be innovative, be aggressive, be the leader.

This letter is also being sent to (BenitoLink) and the Free Lance with the hope they too will rally up and help get this county and city moving forward to be the true destination location and livable community that it should be.

Sincerely,

Judson Shutts, Hollister